When I first saw Mediva, they were a quintet performing medieval Spanish music.

The personnel has changed at every concert since so it was no surprise to see them accompanied by a small choir and several extra instruments.

While this concert was planned for just the quintet, they had such a good time at a special workshop the week before they decided to bring those extra musicians along for the first half of this concert - and what a wonderful difference they made.

The evening began with the traditional Mediva entrance, walking in from behind the audience singing and playing a hymn to the Virgin Mary, the first of many 13th Century works. They were sung by Clare Norburn who has a wonderfully clear soprano, perfectly suited to the ecclesiastical venue. She is both principal singer of Mediva and artistic director of the festival.

For the second half, the quintet returned alone to play 15th Century music from the Sephardic Jews' diaspora. This had strong Arabic influences and used instruments such as the oud and saz.

These were both played superbly by Arngeir Hauksson but all the musicians performed well. The excellent Rebecca Austen-Brown played fiddles and flute, Ann Allen played recorders and shawm and Lester Bennett produced extraordinarily complex percussion from remarkably simple tuned drums.

Each performer took the time to introduce their instruments and give us their histories.

This was a part of their attempt to give the concerts wider appeal but it was hardly necessary as the music was so wonderfully compelling in its own right.